AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The apology to the Stolen Generations on 13 February 2008 marked a place in Australian history that The GetUp Mob, featuring Kev Carmody, Paul Kelly, Urthboy and Missy Higgins, have marked with the new release of the GetUp StandUp version of From Little Things Big Things Grow'. Source: http://music.ninemsn.com.au/ (Sighted 20/11/08).

'Some of the best, most significant writing produced in Australia over more than two centuries is gathered in this landmark anthology. Covering all genres - from fiction, poetry and drama to diaries, letters, essays and speeches - the anthology maps the development of one of the great literatures in English in all its energy and variety.

'The writing reflects the diverse experiences of Australians in their encounter with their extraordinary environment and with themselves. This is literature of struggle, conflict and creative survival. It is literature of lives lived at the extremes, of frontiers between cultures, of new dimensions of experience, where imagination expands.

'This rich, informative and entertaining collection charts the formation of an Australian voice that draws inventively on Indigenous words, migrant speech and slang, with a cheeky, subversive humour always to the fore. For the first time, Aboriginal writings are interleaved with other English-language writings throughout - from Bennelong's 1796 letter to the contemporary flowering of Indigenous fiction and poetry - setting up an exchange that reveals Australian history in stark new ways.

'From vivid settler accounts to haunting gothic tales, from raw protest to feisty urban satire and playful literary experiment, from passionate love poetry to moving memoir, the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature reflects the creative eloquence of a society.

'Chosen by a team of expert editors, who have provided illuminating essays about their selections, and with more than 500 works from over 300 authors, it is an authoritative survey and a rich world of reading to be enjoyed.' (Publisher's blurb)

Allen and Unwin have a YouTube channel with a number of useful videos on the Anthology.

From Little Things Big Things Grow presents the lyrics of the Kev Carmody and Paul Kelly song of the same title, alongside the history of the Gurindji people's plight for their traditional land in the Northern Territory.

The song recounts the story of when Vincent Lingiari and other Gurindji workers walked off the Wave Hill cattle station in 1966. What began as a strike over wages and conditions became an eight-year long struggle for the return of traditional lands. It ended in August 1975 when Prime Minister Gough Whitlam symbolically poured sand into old Lingiari's hand. The book is illustrated Queensland artist Peter Hudson and the kids from Gurindji country.

From Little Things Big Things Grow is a not-for-profit project established to raise funds to provide art, heritage, and cultural facilities for Gurindji people, with the assistance of Ian Thorpe's Fountain for Youth.

The budding young artists who illustrated From Little Things Big ThingsGrow attend the local Kalkaringi Community Education Centre (CEC). Kalkaringi is a remote community approximately 500km southwest of Katherine in the Northern Territory. The school services both Kalkaringi and the nearby community of Dargaragu. (Adapted from Publisher's Website)

'You probably know these as the opening lyrics to the 1991 Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody song, From Little Things Big Things Grow. It is one of Australia's most important songs and most Aussies will know it - if not from its radio play or performances from Paul and Kev around the nation, then from its use by grassroots movements around Australia and in advertising campaigns. ...'

Sound Decision for Song2010single work column — Appears in:
Koori Mail,22 September
no.
4852010;(p. 17)Abstract'The Kev Carmody/Paul Kelly co-written song From Little Things (Big Things Grow) has been added to the National Film and Sound Archive's 'Sounds of Australia'. The song tells the story of Vincent Lingiari, who in 1966 led what was to become an eight-year strike at the Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory. The strike and the efforts of Mr Lingiari are recognised as the beginning of the land rights movement in Australia.' Source: Koori Mail no. 485, 22 September 2010

Sound Decision for Song2010single work column — Appears in:
Koori Mail,22 September
no.
4852010;(p. 17)Abstract'The Kev Carmody/Paul Kelly co-written song From Little Things (Big Things Grow) has been added to the National Film and Sound Archive's 'Sounds of Australia'. The song tells the story of Vincent Lingiari, who in 1966 led what was to become an eight-year strike at the Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory. The strike and the efforts of Mr Lingiari are recognised as the beginning of the land rights movement in Australia.' Source: Koori Mail no. 485, 22 September 2010

'You probably know these as the opening lyrics to the 1991 Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody song, From Little Things Big Things Grow. It is one of Australia's most important songs and most Aussies will know it - if not from its radio play or performances from Paul and Kev around the nation, then from its use by grassroots movements around Australia and in advertising campaigns. ...'